Description
Serviceberries are a beloved food and medicine plant native to Turtle Island. These are small shrub-like trees who flower spectacularly in spring, offer sweet berries at the start of summer, and turns a beautiful collection of orange and red in the fall.
With coppicing they can become more bushy, making a larger share of the berries accessible to us humans- though none of them will be wasted, as they are an important food source for a vast number of birds. Beyond nutritious fruit, their leaves, bark, and roots are medicinal and used by many Indigenous nations who share land with these generous trees.
They prefer moist but well-drained soil and grow between 15′ and 25′ in full to partial sun. They are susceptible to Gymnosporangium fungi (who need a juniper species nearby to complete their lifecycle), but will produce fruit even if infected.
We gather serviceberries in Western NY every year from Amelanchier arborea and A. canadensis, both of whom are the mother trees of the seedlings we’re offering here. We planted seeds from the trees with the best-tasting and most abundant fruit.
